For four weeks in February/March, we were delighted to host Natasha Carthew as Quay Words second ever writer-in-residence at Exeter Custom House, where she ran free Wild Writing workshops out on the Quay and ‘meet the writer’ sessions inside. The focus of her residency, which was supported by The Met Office Informatics Lab, was exploring the natural world through the written word, as well as exploring a sense of place.

The culmination of Natasha’s residency was to have been a Quay Voices reading, where she would share the stage with four of the emerging writers she had met and worked with during her four weeks at Exeter Custom House. Natasha was planning to read her Quay Words commissioned poem River running over which used the river Exe to explores the theme of drought. We were hugely disappointed that the event had to be cancelled in response to the lockdown. Now, it’s our pleasure to share the poem with you here, available to download or stream, as recorded in lockdown in Cornwall by Natasha Carthew.

Across her residency at Exeter Custom House earlier this year, Natasha explored a sense of place alongside the theme of nature writing. Through a series of nature writing workshops and ‘meet the writer’ sessions, Natasha met aspiring writers from across the city and surrounding area.

Right now, we’re all spending more time at home. This might mean that you’re considering giving writing a try for the first time, or perhaps you’re seeking inspiration to try a new genre. We’ve teamed up with Natasha to make her ‘Wild Writing for beginners’ workshop available online. There are a series of activities and suggestions here which are based on the workshop Natasha led on Exeter Quay in February.

The activities here encourage you to be inspired by the natural world around you. Whether that’s the slice of the world outside of your window right now, a much-rambled route from your daily exercise or a fondly remembered place you’ve visited, we hope you enjoy putting pen to paper.